COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

The Lyons Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) heard public comment and reviewed proposed changes to Town of Lyons town code about short-term vacation rentals on Monday. But the four commissioners at the June 26 meeting decided to continue the public hearing and any decision on changes to town code to July 10.

Kathie Guckenberger, consulting attorney for Town of Lyons, presented a revised draft of a proposed new article 7 in Chapter 6 of the Town of Lyons code, entitled Short-Term Rental Licenses. The PCDC commissioners didn’t have enough time to review all the changes before the meeting, and had concerns that the proposed policy was moving away from a simple, owner-occupied policy that would be self regulating. Commissioners Mark Browning, Clay Dusel, and chair Gregg Oetting have been seeking a balance of a policy that is easy for a majority of homeowners who rent out rooms in the homes they live in to come into compliance. At the June 26 meeting, they expressed a goal to provide a lighter-use option than a bed and breakfast use, finding a balance of minimal impact on neighborhoods and general ease of compliance for homeowners who want to rent out rooms in residential zones.

The commissioners hope to look at a revised draft by July 10 that includes several changes. They agree with required safety inspections by Lyons fire protection district (requested by Fire Chief JJ Hoffman at least every two years) instead of extensive inspections by the town’s hired building inspection company, Charles Abbott Associates. They don’t want to see homeowners required to bring a copy of deeds, or required to send a notification letter to neighbors (which commissioners said would imply that there was something neighbors could do to stop the short-term vacation rental use). They also discussed that the policy should include a way to make sure the police department and fire department know homes with rooms rented as vacation rentals, without a sign advertising it posted on the front door. They wanted to see a way for people to know who to contact in an emergency without advertising that a homeowner is not home.

Before changes to town code are approved, the Lyons Board of Trustees is required to have a public hearing and vote, which can be continued to a later date.

The commissioners also prepared a draft memo to the trustees stating that the PCDC wants to see an enforcement officer hired. They plan to finalize and vote on that memo at the July 10 meeting.

Here’s a recap of what is legal now in the town limits of Lyons: Bed and breakfasts with 6 or fewer units are allowed as a use by right on estate residential and agricultural zoned land, if the homeowners have a business license and the rented units are in the main house. In addition to agricultural and estate zoned land, lodging is also allowed in commercial zoned land. According to current town code, anyone who wants to legally rent rooms as short-term vacation rentals in residential (R-1 or R-2) zones in town (neighborhoods where most of us live) would have to apply for a conditional use review as a bed and breakfast, with several steps and public hearings before the PCDC and Board of Trustees. But no homeowners in residential zones have applied.

However, the new short-term vacation rental ordinance the that PCDC and town planning staff are working on would also allow some short-term vacation rental use by right in residential zones (R-1 and R-2) in the Town of Lyons. To give residential property owners a break, the PCDC looked into simplifying town policy to allow renting rooms or suites in a house in a residential zone where the owner lives, to only one party at a time, with limited number of people in that party. The use would be less than a bed and breakfast, and no conditional use would be required, but homeowners would be required to get a short-term vacation rental business license (similar in cost to other Town of Lyons business licenses) and comply with safety-based requirements.

The Town of Lyons accessory dwelling unit (ADU) policy prohibits using residential properties ADUs (separate apartments in the main house or detached) for short-term vacation rentals, because the policy is intended to increase residential rentals for people who work in town.

The PCDC has now identified that the Town of Lyons must be able to enforce these new policies, both the short-term vacation rentals policy, the bed and breakfast ordinance, and the ADU policy, and this message will be sent to the Board of Trustees.

The draft memo that the commissioners plan to finalize July 10 states “The PCDC has spent many volunteer hours in recent months drafting proposed regulations relating to important matters in our community, including accessory dwelling units and short term vacation rentals. Assisting the PCDC in its efforts were paid Town staff and outside professionals (planners and attorneys). The PCDC believes that in order for its efforts, and those of the Board of Trustees in adopting final versions of ordinances, to best achieve their intended effects – which are to benefit the town and its citizens – it is necessary for the Town to put in place a reasonable enforcement procedure. At a minimum, that should include a Code Enforcement Officer position.”

It also adds “Fairness would also be promoted by funding such a position, so that those who do make an effort to comply with Code requirements are not undercut by others who do not comply. At hearings, we have heard multiple comments from members of the public who have questioned what good regulations do if those regulations are not enforced. Proper code enforcement can also generate revenue to cover the cost of enforcement through such things as business license fees and sales tax receipts.”

In the past year, as the PCDC has been working with town staff to shape a policy, researching what other communities have done, they have agreed upon the following limitations, if short-term vacation rentals are to be allowed “by right” in residential zones in the town limits of Lyons:

Homeowners can only rent to one party of guests at a time (one room or suite of rooms)

Occupancy is limited to 2 adults per room.

Homeowners must pay sales tax to the state (which can be collected and administered by companies like Airbnb) and have an annual short-term vacation rental business license for the Town of Lyons. It was also discussed that the Town of Lyons should consider an occupancy fee for nightly lodging.

Homeowners must live in the home as a primary residence for at least 6 months out of the year.

When getting the license, homeowners must sign that they agree to follow a code of conduct, including safety and “good neighbor” behavior such as having smoke detectors, a fire extinguisher, and a parking plan for guests.

Homeowners must post in a town-approved location a document (similar to a building permit) provides contact information for the owner or a designated person managing the vacation rental.

Short-term vacation rentals are not allowed in recreation vehiclesaccording to section 6-7-30, Eligibility for licenses.

Short-term vacation rentals are not allowed in accessory dwelling units, according to section 6-7-30.

Short-term vacation rentals are not allowed in permanently affordable, deed-restricted homes (for example Habitat for Humanity homes, when they are built), according to section 6-7-30.

Guckenberger said that Board of Trustees will set the fees needed to administer the program, such as the inspection fees.

During the public hearing, three members of the public spoke, including a homeowner of estate residential zoned land who wanted to know if the proposed changes affect bed and breakfast use in that zone. The town staff explained that it is not affected. Two homeowners that currently rent rooms as short-term vacation rentals said they are concerned about having to post phone number contacts on their homes. The commissioners later discussed about an alternative way to post contact info for public safety officers.

There were two email comments that were read. One homeowner emailed in support for the policy, and another homeowner emailed against the policy.

New PCDC commissioner Reena Rotz, attending her first meeting since appointed, asked about whether homeowner associations can limit short-term vacation rentals. Bob Joseph, consulting town planner, said homeowners associations can be more restrictive than town code, and not allow homeowners to rent out rooms as short-term vacation rentals. However, the homeowners association itself, not the town, must enforce those restrictions.

Oetting said “I know there are people in town who don’t think this is the direction the town should be going. I fully understand the purpose of zoning regulations and buying homes with an understanding of what property owners can do. We were very careful with the ADU policy to differentiate so that ADUs are not duplexes. And short-term vacation rentals are not bed and breakfasts. There are simply going to be neighborhoods that are becoming higher density. Time marches on and we have to gracefully move forward.”

The Town of Lyons needs long-term rentals that people who work in town can afford. Those of us who care about affordable housing should watch the proposed changes to vacation rental policy, and the enforcement of any new policy, and determine how the decisions affect the availability and prices of Lyons rentals. Some communities with unrestrained short-term vacation rentals deal with a new problem of fewer longer-term rentals that local employees can afford. Looking purely at money and the free market, with no limits in residential zones, if property owners can make $200 a night per room or suite from vacationers, why would they want to rent on a monthly basis to a tenant and make $1500 a month? Lately I’ve been considering the balance between viewing a place to live as a basic human right, and viewing it as an investment commodity. It’s a question of what and who we value.

Do you think short-term vacation rentals should be in the Town of Lyons? What is good for the whole of our community, including neighbors as well as homeowners and otherresidents who are long-term renters, and people who are looking for affordable places to rent? The next PCDC meeting is July 10, and then you have anotherchance to give input at a later Lyons Board of Trustees public hearing in July, which will be held after the PCDC commissioners send recommendations to the trustees.

This is a weekly commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder about affordable housing. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @ hotmail.com. For a history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers posted on my blog at lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. The Town of Lyons lost a total of about 70 flood-destroyed homes to both the federal buyout programs (including the 16 homes in the Foothills Mobile Home Park) and to the changed use of the Riverbend Mobile Home Park property to an event venue (rezoned for commercial use). In March 2015, a proposal for subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 units) on five to seven acres of Bohn Park was voted down 614 to 498 by Town of Lyons voters in a special election. At the end of 2016, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley purchased six residential lots in Lyons to build three permanently affordable duplexes.

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Originally published in the June 22, 2017, edition of the Lyons Recorder. An updated version was published in the August 3, 2017 edition.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Summer reading list

by Amy Reinholds

Want some relaxing beach or riverside reading this summer? I like books that entertain but also help me learn about our society, step inside someone else’s shoes, and inspire me with approaches that work.

So here is my affordable-housing-related summer reading list. Comments and suggestions are welcome at the email address listed at the end of the column.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond. When I was at the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado this spring, many people were talking about Hillbilly Elegy, but one of the presenters suggested that Evicted is a top-notch book and recommended it for the conference discussion book for next year. I just started reading it and was struck by the detailed and succinct descriptions of both tenants and landlords in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I feel like the people Desmond depicts are family or friends I visit with across a kitchen table or sit next to in their cars as they drive to collect rent. Desmond’s writing transports the reader to the cold, snowy neighborhoods, into the lives of people struggling to make a living.

Chief Left Hand, by Margaret Coel. As the price of real estate skyrockets in the Lyons area, do you ever wonder about people who lived on the land before us? Many of us heard of “Chief Niwot’s Curse” when we first came to Boulder County, like I did when I was an intern at the Boulder Daily Camera, visiting from Illinois in 1991. It was rumored he said the beauty of the area causes you to return and never leave (although after reading this book I found there is no evidence he said these words). Many of us do not know any more about Chief Niwot (which means Chief Left Hand, translated to English) and the Southern Arapaho and other native people who lived in the area. I wanted to read this book ever since I heard Boulder libraries had selected it for a community-wide book discussion a few years ago. The book describes rivers including the north and south St. Vrain, and even mentions an area of present day Lyons. Follow the travels of tribes across the landscape now covered by our businesses, highways, and suburban neighborhoods. Gain understanding into the heartbreaking story of how European-American settlers moving west – seeking their own better way of life – affected the land, the animals, and the native people of Colorado. The stories of settlers, military troops, government officials, gold-seekers, and multiple Native American tribes are intertwined.

Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, Volume I: History and Contributions and Volume II: Lives and Legacies, by Marjorie K. McIntosh. Still thinking about the people who lived on this land before we did, there are many books about immigrants who moved to the West. I’m interested in new books by Marjorie McIntosh, a retired CU professor, about people from Southern Colorado, New Mexico, Mexico, and Latin America who moved to Boulder County from 1900 to 1980. Her work includes stories and oral history from area families, some interviewed by their family’s younger generations. The Lyons Redstone Museum hopes to get Marjorie McIntosh and the Boulder County Latino Project to speak at the museum in the future. I just got both volumes and am looking forward to reading at least one before an event is scheduled in Lyons.

Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Natasha Trethewey. This book is also on my wish list. Those of us who lived through the Lyons 2013 flood might find some common ground with smaller communities who went through Hurricane Katrina, experiencing loss and the long journey to recovery.

And how about a summer listening list, a soundtrack to accompany your reading? Mix and match the songs in this playlist with any of the books, and add your own favorite songs.

What books and music do you recommend? I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas.

This column is a weekly commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder about affordable housing. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @ hotmail.com. For a history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers posted on my blog atlyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com.

The Town of Lyons lost a total of about 70 flood-destroyed homes to both the federal buyout programs (including the 16 homes in the Foothills Mobile Home Park) and to the changed use of the Riverbend Mobile Home Park property to an event venue (rezoned for commercial use). In March 2015, a proposal for subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 units) on five to seven acres of Bohn Park was voted down 614 to 498 by Town of Lyons voters in a special election. At the end of 2016, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley purchased six residential lots in Lyons to build three permanently affordable duplexes.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Monday’s Planning Commission discussion covered most of the recent challenges the commissioners have faced in the past year or two: accessory dwelling units, short-term vacation rentals, and the lack of a town zoning and code enforcement department.

And there was a surprise at the June 12 Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) meeting. Attendees at the meeting learned that there are two legal, permitted bed and breakfasts in Town of Lyons, on estate and agricultural zoned land, both which allow bed and breakfast use by right with a business license (if in the main house, with fewer than 6 units). One is the Big Tree Farmstead on Bradford Street near Bohn Park, which the commissioners knew about. However, the commissioners and others in the audience learned that a bed and breakfast that was permitted in 2016 is in a literal tree house. The Little Red Treehouse bed and breakfast is on agricultural zoned land up Indian Lookout Road, on the same lot as the property owner’s main house. But because it’s a detached building, it should not have been allowed to be permitted as a bed and breakfast as a use by right.

This is another example of the problems the Town of Lyons is having because of no code enforcement staff. Matt Manley, a Lyons flood recovery planner, whose contract ends at the end of June, recently learned about this mistake in interpreting town code when researching the bed and breakfast policy and the proposed short-term vacation rental changes and additions that the PCDC is considering for residential zoned properties in town. “It never came forward as a conditional use review, which it should have. There are some errors here that should have been enforced,” he told the commissioners. “The Town of Lyons does not have code enforcement department.”

Lyons did have a code enforcement officer on a temporary basis, but that contract ended. The PCDC commissioners want to communicate to the Lyons Board of Trustees the need for code enforcement to be funded in the town budget.

“There needs to be an enforcement department and it needs to be funded,” said Commissioner Mark Browning. “We’re pretty much wasting our time creating a short-term vacation rental ordinance if it can’t be enforced.” The three other commissioners present, Chair Gregg Oetting, Clay Dusel, and Neil Sullivan, agreed. They decided to continue a public hearing about a proposed short-term vacation rental policy until June 26. One member of the public spoke during the public hearing asking for the hearing about the short-term vacation rentals to be continued. I also spoke during the public hearing and agreed.

I attended this PCDC public hearing because I care about how both accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and short-term vacation rentals could affect affordable housing stock in Lyons. ADUs are an attempt to add more lower-cost, market-rate rentals for people who work in town, which in general I feel positive about. I’m watching for results. Short-term vacation rentals might work in the opposite direction. Some communities with unrestrained short-term vacation rentals deal with a new problem of fewer longer-term rentals that people who work in town can afford. Looking purely at money and the free market, when property owners can make $200 a night per room or suite from vacationers, why would they want to rent on a monthly basis to a tenant and make $1500 a month? Lately I’ve been considering the balance between viewing a place to live as a basic human right, and viewing it as an investment commodity. For me, it comes down to what and who we value.

In addition to the bed-and breakfast use in agricultural and estate zoned land, lodging is also allowed in commercial zoned land in Lyons. However, the new short-term vacation rental ordinance the that PCDC and town planning staff are working on would also allow some short-term vacation rental use by right in residential (R-1) zones in the Town of Lyons, neighborhoods where most of us live. According to current town code, anyone who wants to legally rent rooms as short-term vacation rentals in residential zones in town would have to apply for a conditional use review as a bed and breakfast, with several steps and public hearings before the PCDC and Board of Trustees. But no homeowners in residential zones have applied.

However, to give residential property owners a break, the PCDC looked into simplifying town policy to allow renting rooms or suites in a house in a residential zone where the owner lives, to only one party at a time, with limited number of people in that party. No conditional use would be required, but homeowners would be required to get a short-term vacation rental business license (similar in cost to other Town of Lyons business licenses). However, the PCDC has now clearly identified that the Town of Lyons must be able to enforce these new policies, and this message will be sent to the Board of Trustees.

Despite all the discussion about issues with short-term vacation rentals and lack of enforcement at the June 12 meeting, the PCDC did approve the conditional use review for an ADU, a separate 600 square-foot one bedroom apartment at 600 Indian Lookout Road.

ADUs cannot be used for vacation rentals, and the applicant pledged that he intended to honor that requirement. He said he appreciates that goal of providing more long-term rentals in town. If he doesn’t use the apartment for his own family members, he said he will rent it to longer-term tenants. The ADU policy prohibits using the ADU for short-term vacation rentals, because the policy is intended to increase residential rentals for people who work in town. The Town of Lyons code changed at the end of 2016 to allow ADUs in separate buildings to share utility connection fees with the main house (saving homeowners $15,000-$16,000 or more in additional connection fees), and so far, plans for two ADUs have completed the process. This proposed apartment, on agricultural (A-2) zoned land is set to become the third legal detached ADU, if the Lyons Board of Trustees approve the conditional use review.

The applicant purchased the 5.2 acre vacant parcel and also will be going through the planning and zoning process for building a new main house.

Conflicting information with homeowners association documents for the Indian Lookout Road area (the former Forsberg annexation) will have to be sorted out by the homeowner and his neighbors, one who spoke during public comment. Some documents state that detached apartments weren’t allowed in the area, but other documents do not include that restriction. The PCDC commissioners said it was not their role to determine what the homeowners association restrictions are, but instead, they evaluated the conditional use review based on the Town of Lyons ADU ordinance. They approved the conditional use review for the ADU 4-0.

Other requirements in the ADU policy include that the property owners must live in either the main house or the apartment. (They can’t rent out both units at the same time.) You can read the ADU ordinance atwww.townoflyons.com/566/Accessory-Dwelling-Units.

This is a weekly commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder about affordable housing. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds@hotmail.com. For a history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers posted on my blog atlyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. The Town of Lyons lost a total of about 70 flood-destroyed homes to both the federal buyout programs (including the 16 homes in the Foothills Mobile Home Park) and to the changed use of the Riverbend Mobile Home Park property to an event venue (rezoned for commercial use). In March 2015, a proposal for subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 units) on five to seven acres of Bohn Park was voted down 614 to 498 by Town of Lyons voters in a special election. At the end of 2016, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley purchased six residential lots in Lyons to build three permanently affordable duplexes.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Second legal ADU, zoning for town land on Ute Hwy approved

by Amy Reinholds

The Lyons Board of Trustees approved two ordinances Monday, finalizing decisions from a May 22 Lyons Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) meeting. The trustees approved both a conditional use review for another accessory dwelling unit (ADU) and an ordinance for initial zoning for the land that the Town of Lyons purchased at 4651 and 4652 Ute Hwy.

Now the second legal plan for a detached apartment on residential R-1 zoning in town limits, the conditional use review for a garage apartment at 427 Stickney Street was approved 6-0 at the June 5 meeting. On May 1, the Lyons Board of Trustees also approved a plan for a garage apartment at 327 Seward Street. The Town of Lyons code changed at the end of 2016 to allow ADUs in separate buildings to share utility connection fees with the main house (saving homeowners about $15,000-$16,000 in additional connection fees), and so far, plans for two ADUs have completed the process.

With the aim of encouraging more smaller apartments on single-family residential lots in Town of Lyons as lower-priced, market-rate rentals that people who work in town can afford, the PCDC and the Board of Trustees changed town code in December 2016. The original Town of Lyons ADU ordinance, established in 2013 after the flood, allowed small apartments to be permitted on single-family residential lots, but no homeowners in Lyons applied to participate in the program for those 3 years. You can read the ADU ordinance atwww.townoflyons.com/566/Accessory-Dwelling-Units.

The conditional use review at the June 5 Board of Trustees meeting included a public hearing about the plan for a 528 square-foot apartment on the second story of a two-story garage, although no one spoke. It passed through the May 22 PCDC public hearing with recommendations to adopt requirements from the Lyons Fire Protection District, which the Lyons trustees also adopted, with a few clarifications in legal language. First, the parking space provided for tenants of the apartment cannot block the alley, which in this case means a vehicle can park on the property in a space that is parallel to the alley, but not perpendicular to the alley. Also, the fire department wants to see that the stairway to the apartment follows current building code, which allows enough space for emergency response. Because the proposed garage apartment is only 20 feet from the existing house, the fire department also requires a one-hour fire wall on the wall of the garage that faces the house, to slow down spread of fire between structures. Finally, to identify there is an apartment on the property, the fire department wants to see a 427 ½ sign posted at the front of the house.

The trustees, town attorney, and town administrator talked about how the approved detached apartment specific conditions in Lyons become a recorded use with Boulder County, affecting future property owners.

Also at the June 5 meeting, the trustees passed an ordinance approving the initial zoning of Town of Lyons owned land at 4651 and 4652 Ute Hwy, changed from Boulder County agricultural zoning to Town of Lyons municipal facilities (M) zoning for 2.15 acres and agricultural (A-1) zoning for the rest of the land.

The resolution passed 6-0. Trustees expressed that this zoning allows the town to build a new public works building on the 2.15 acres on the northern part of 4651 Ute Hwy. They said that leaving the remaining 4.3 acres on the north side of the highway and the 3.28 acres on the south side of the highway at 4652 Ute Hwy zoned close to its previous zoning in Boulder County, gives the Town of Lyons the most control over future use.

Two neighbors near the parcels spoke during the public hearing, saying they wanted to be kept informed about what will happen on the land. Mayor Connie Sullivan, as well as other trustees including Barney Dreistadt and Dan Greenberg, said keeping the land in an agricultural zoning gives the Town of Lyons the most say in how the land is used in the future when sold to people who want to rezone it for business or residential use.

“Any future plans will go through a careful zoning process,” Sullivan said. “We want to make sure that whatever goes there is compatible with the surrounding area, and that includes neighbors who are in the Town of Lyons and those who aren’t.”

When the town sells other parts for mixed use, commercial, and residential, the individual developers will go through the regular Town of Lyons zoning process. The zoning process includes several steps with the Lyons PCDC and the Lyons Board of Trustees. Developers and landowners who purchase parcels on this eastern corridor land will come forward with proposals that will be vetted publicly and include development reviews and public hearings.

The Town of Lyons closed April 25 on purchasing the former Longmont water treatment plant land east of town from the City of Longmont. In March, the Town of Lyons and the City of Longmont agreed on a sales price of $925,000 for the land. Sources of expected funding include FEMA paying for the part of the land where the Lyons public works building will be relocated and insurance funds from the Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency (CIRSA) paying for the new public works building, which was damaged in the 2013 flood. FEMA has said that the public works building must be in progress, and significantly moving forward, by September.

In 2015, Lyons was awarded a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Agency as matching funds to extend the sewer and water to the eastern corridor to increase the likelihood of development and increase the employment base in Lyons. At last month’s meetings, it was reported that the utilities expansion work must begin by mid-June to not lose the funding.

Why am I writing about this land? It has been considered as a possible area for affordable housing, discussed in past years when the town applied for a national resiliency grant that it did not receive. Those of us interested in seeing more options for affordable housing return to Lyons should pay attention to both proposals for mixed business and residential use on the eastern corridor and what happens if light-industrial businesses move from central areas of town to this eastern corridor area. Then the centrally located land could open up for future affordable housing. The mayor and trustees have expressed interest in these kind of “land swaps.”

The Town of Lyons can put out requests for proposals (RFPs) or requests for quotes (RFQs) for landowners and developers who want to propose ideas to develop other parts of the land. When sold, the Town of Lyons can reimburse the town water enterprise fund. According to the Lyons Primary Planning Area Master Plan, developed with many months of input from neighbors and community members, the land is determined as acceptable for mixed use, residential, and commercial development, including light industrial.

This is a weekly commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder about affordable housing. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com. For a history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers posted on my blog atlyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. The Town of Lyons lost a total of about 70 flood-destroyed homes to both the federal buyout programs (including the 16 homes in the Foothills Mobile Home Park) and to the changed use of the Riverbend Mobile Home Park property to an event venue (rezoned for commercial use). In March 2015, a proposal for subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 units) on five to seven acres of Bohn Park was voted down 614 to 498 by Town of Lyons voters in a special election. At the end of 2016, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley purchased six residential lots in Lyons to build three permanently affordable duplexes.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

After the Town of Lyons closed on a buyout of the flood-damaged Foothills Mobile Home Park at the end of April with with federal Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds, households who used to live there now are eligible for the Uniform Relocation Assistance program. Also, renters from four other single-family-home buyouts that were completed with CDBG-DR funds are eligible.

Molly O’Donnell, a CDBG Disaster Recovery Project Manager from the City of Longmont, works on the Boulder County Collaborative group, which determines priorities for CDBG-DR funds. She said that the collaborative is generally working with 16 households in Lyons, who either lived at the Foothills mobile home park or rented one of four single family homes that are part of the CDBG-DR buyout program. Three households have already received their benefits.

According to the Uniform Relocation Assistance (URA), responsibilities for residential displacements like the Town of Lyons CDBG-DR buyouts include providing relocation advisory services to displaced tenants and owner occupants, reimbursement for moving expenses, and providing payments for the added cost of renting or purchasing comparable replacement housing.

In general, under the URA program, O’Donnell explained that households have 12 months from the date they are issued a notice of eligibility for relocation assistance to either purchase or lease and occupy a dwelling unit (that is determined to be decent, safe, and sanitary) and 6 months from that date to claim their benefits.

“However, we are working to complete the process and pay out all the benefits as soon as possible so these people can move on with their lives,” she said. “Not all 20 households will receive benefits since several have opted not to participate in the program. One property has not yet been purchased, so the notice of eligibility to that house’s tenants is still pending, we expect to complete that property purchase as soon as possible.”

One of the tenants who already received the benefits, Carrie Gonzales, was able to buy a $50,000 home outright in Raton, N.M., using the lump sum Uniform Relocation Assistance settlement and a small amount of savings. She closed on May 15, and she and partner Kevin expect to move by mid-to-late June.

“It was a blessing, but it has been a long and painful journey,” Gonzales said. She said she is sad to leave Lyons, and her heart is with all her neighbors who are still struggling to find affordable places to live after losing their homes in the 2013 flood.

The URA program wasn’t available for displaced residents whose landlords didn’t participate in the buyout program for flood-damaged properties. For example, Gonzales, who originally lived in the Riverbend Mobile Home Park, wouldn’t have been eligible even though she couldn’t return to live at Riverbend after the flood. The Lyons Board of Trustees approved the property owners’ request to change zoning of the Riverbend Mobile Home Park property to a commercial use, and it is now an event venue with vacation lodging in tiny homes on wheels. However, Gonzales later rented a house on the west end of the Foothills Mobile Home Park land, whose owner, John Barranway, did participate in the CDBG-funded buyout, which closed April 28 of this year, and all tenants for this property were eligible for URA benefits.

“Without the buyout program, the owners of these rental units would not have had a mechanism to sell their substantially damaged properties for pre-flood market values, and the tenants of those units would not have qualified for URA benefits,” O’Donnell said.

All land purchased with the federal funds as part of the the CDBG-DR or the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program buyout programs is now owned by the Town of Lyons. The deed-restricted buy-out properties can be used as open space or recreational land. If the Town of Lyons plans to use any of the properties as recreational land in the future, the only structures that are allowed are open-sided pavilions/shelters and public restrooms. Trails must be soft-surface (such as gravel).

The URA provides payments to the former tenants (either renters or mobile home owners who paid lot rent) for the added cost of renting or purchasing comparable replacement housing. O’Donnell explained that URA replacement housing benefits are determined by a calculation that considers 1) the monthly rent and cost of utility services for a comparable replacement dwelling, 2) the monthly rent and cost of utility services for the home that households were displaced from, and 3) for low-income households, housing costs of 30 percent of their average monthly gross household income. The maximum URA payment is calculated on the difference in the old and new housing costs for a one-month period and multiplied by 42 (the number of months allowed by the URA to be included in the calculation).

If a displaced household wants to purchase a unit rather than rent, then the URA benefit comes in the form of a lump-sum payment for down payment assistance. For renters, the URA is received every month for 3½ years (42 months).

O’Donnell said that the calculation is independent of prior federal disaster assistance received, with one exception: unused FEMA rental assistance.

In addition, under the URA, payment for moving expenses is also allowed. O’Donnell said the moving expenses payment is based on a payment for actual reasonable moving and related expenses, a fixed moving payment in the amount of $1,425 (based on the URA Fixed Residential Moving Cost Schedule), or a combination of both, not to exceed the actual costs for a move using a commercial moving company.

Finally, the URA allows for relocation advisory services. O’Donnell said that the Boulder County Collaborative has a URA subject matter expert consulting firm on board since last year providing relocation advisory services to the tenants. “Our contact there is in close coordination with each of the tenants to walk them through the process, explain their rights and responsibilities, provide status updates, coordinate obtaining the paperwork necessary to calculate and process the benefit payments, finding comparable replacement dwellings and conducting inspections, and assist with determining moving costs and resources.”

Gonzales said that finding another place to live that she could afford was extremely challenging. That she found the home in New Mexico with a seller who was willing to work with her unknown schedule of receiving the URA funds was like “a game of roulette,” she said.

In the 3 ½ years since the Lyons flood, Gonzales pursued several options, including advocating for a new or rebuilt mobile home park in Lyons and trying to find a location that would take an older mobile home that her partner owned that was not damaged in the flood. (She shared some of her information with the researchers who wrote theManufactured Housing and Flood Recovery in Lyons, Coloradoreport that was prepared in 2015.) Gonzales rented a house on Apple Valley Road, with much a higher rent, until she found the house available to rent on the west end of the former Foothills Mobile Home Park land. In the past months of working with the URA, she also looked into moving to a mobile home park in Platteville, Colo., but those lot spaces were already taken before the buyout closing completed in Lyons.

In Raton, “We found a place where we are very welcome,” Gonzales said. Because of a health condition that limits the distance she can drive, Gonzales is glad to have bought a home that is in a mile of everything she needs to drive to, and within walking distance of downtown. She said that Raton, with a population of 6,000 people, lost residents after mining industry left town and wants to attract new people and encourage economic development.

The URA program that looked for similar homes in Lyons to what she had been renting before the buyout found only a house for rent near the school that was $2100 a month. Now, instead, she owns a home outright and only has utility payments and property taxes to pay.

Gonzales, who worked for Madhava Honey for 13 years and then ran her own honey store on Hwy 66 east of town since 2012, is bringing a stock of honey to Raton, and plans to work out of her home. But living only a few blocks from downtown, she might find a perfect store front. One of her suppliers is in Rocky Ford, Colo., a lot closer to Raton than Lyons, and she is already meeting people who keep bees in Raton.

It’s been hard to leave friends and to leave Lyons, which was not made whole after the flood, Gonzales says. She is sad, thinking of her pre-flood neighbors who still aren’t able to return to Lyons or to find an affordable living situation after the flood. “But we’re telling people to come join us. You can do a whole lot in Raton. There’s a lot of opportunity for energetic, artistic people.”

Her final step is working with the relocation companies bidding to handle her move through the URA program. A last-minute and stressful issue that came up from one of the companies: an additional $5,000 mileage cost because she is moving more than 50 miles away. She is hoping to get that issue resolved or reduced to a fee she can afford, but still expects the moving date to be either middle or end of June, depending on which moving company gets the bid.

The Town of Lyons purchased the 1.26-acre former Foothills Mobile Home Park on April 28 for $662,165, using CDBG-DR funds. The Town of Lyons was required to grant a 90-day notice after the April 28 closing date to all current tenants (in this case, Gonzales and her partner). After tenants move out, the demolition of the flood-damaged mobile homes on the eastern part of the property can begin. The time-frame requirements for reimbursements of demolition and cleanup costs are mandated by the federal funding sources.

The Lyons Board of Trustees approved a resolution on May 10, ratifying expenditures of up to $591,386 of CDBG-DR Replacement Housing Payment funds (part of the Uniform Relocation Assistance program), available for homeowners and tenants who lived at the Foothills Mobile Home Park, and also 4 other single-family-home buyouts that were completed with CDBG-DR funds. The trustees passed a resolution that approves the expenditure of the Replacement Housing Payment program funds for tenants of the 104 5th Avenue (Foothills Mobile Home Park), 415 Prospect Street, 417 Evans Street, 109 Park Street, and 323 5th Avenue.

I don’t know if any of the Lyons participants in the URA benefits will use the funds to rent or buy in Lyons, because the difficulty of finding affordable rentals and homes for sale in Lyons. O’Donnell said the Boulder County collaborative doesn’t know how many households will using funds to rent or buy in the Lyons area or Boulder County. “It is entirely the household’s choice,” she said. “Most are still in the process of determining the benefit calculation.”

After the September 2013 flood, the Town of Lyons lost a total of about 70 flood-destroyed homes to both the federal buyout programs (including the 16 homes in the Foothills Mobile Home Park) and to the changed use of the Riverbend Mobile Home Park property to an event venue (rezoned for commercial use). For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns posted on my blog at lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. This is a weekly commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder about affordable housing. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Editor/Author of this blog

Amy Reinholds served on the Housing Recovery Task Force in Lyons, Colo., from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee during its existence from April 2015-April 2016. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.